Taiwan Taipei Mission

Taiwan Taipei Mission

Monday, January 5, 2015

Small World

Family & Friends!!

First off, BRYAN! I
met someone yesterday who just returned home from the Cauayan,
Philippines mission! I asked her if she knows you and she said that she
never met you but that the area that you are serving in, Bambong, is an
amazing area and missionaries really want to go there! She said that the
mission is wonderful and that she learned so much there! She also
talked about how much she misses the people! Your pictures with all the
little kids is adorable!! I loved reading through your email and looking
at the pictures you sent! Love you!!

This week went by extremely fast!! It's also been an extremely cold week but its been really fun!

Sadly,
Thursday, we were stuck at home...our car is the lightest thing..it got
stuck in the driveway and we live many miles away from our area...it
was snowing and we received about 6 inches of snow...but, other than
that, I had a blast!

Some elders in my district
found a couple people in our stake who speak Chinese. They set an
appointment up for me with Bro. Savage last Tuesday night. I was able to
talk to him and I learned a lot about studying the language. We talked
pretty much the entire time in English (yes, he's a talker) but if I am
here for a while longer, he said to call him and we can set up an
appointment for me to teach him a lesson.

This
week, we have been focusing on visiting less-actives. Most don't let
us in, but yesterday we saw a miracle! We went to visit the Fitt family.
Sis. Cook has been in this area for 4 1/2 months and she said that they
have never let us in. We were able to talk to them for about an hour!
They are very open about church. They have 6 kids. One of their sons
returned from a mission a couple years ago and one son is a junior and
talked about wanting to serve as soon as he graduated high school. They
are a cute family and hopefully we will be able to continue to help
them come back to church.

Saturday we had
exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders. Sis. Cook and I went to
Glen Eagle and Sis Grant stayed in Jackson Creek. We had two baptisms to
go to on Saturday. The first one was an 8 year-old girl who is in the
Glen Eagle ward and the second one was an investigator that Sis. Cook
taught a couple months ago and moved. It was so neat to attend a convert
baptism. Her name is Brook and she has been through so much in her
life. The Spirit was so strong and she was so happy. She has a cute
little one year old daughter. I was so glad I was able to meet Brook. I
hope that she continues to grow and learn more about the gospel. On
Saturday, we were also able to teach a recent-convert for the Glen Eagle
Ward. Her name is Giselle and she has the sweetest Spirit. The gospel
has really strengthened her life and has helped her overcome some pretty
hard challenges in her life. It is neat to see, even though I don't
know these people very well, the changes that have been put in their
lives because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They are so happy. It makes
me so blessed to have grown up in the gospel and now being able to
share the knowledge that I know to others around me.

The
neatest part about Saturday, was our dinner appointment. The family, the
Kingrey's, have changed my life forever. They just moved out to
Colorado about the same time I got here. They moved from Arkansas and
have experienced so much in their life. Do you remember the huge
tornado that occurred on April 27? There was a neighborhood that had
completely been destroyed in this tornado. Bro. Kingrey was about 4
hours away on a business trip when the tornado happened and Sis.
Kingrey, their two children, and I believe her dad, were at home. When
the tornado came through, their house was completely flattened and they
had lost everything. They were all severely injured, their 6 year-old
son and the grandfather were carried in the Tornado. What was the
neatest part is that they had barely moved to the area a couple months
before the Tornado hit. They moved their because they had a prompting.
They had no idea why. After they had met their neighbors Sis. Kingrey
had an impression that they were there to help their neighbors. They
were somewhat older--no kids at home anymore. She felt as if the husband
was going to pass away sometime soon and that they were going to be
able to help the wife cope with the loss. In the tornado, the husband
did end up being killed and the Kingrey's were able to weep and sorrow
with the wife. It was such an amazing story of being in-tune with the
Spirit and listening to the promptings. Sis. Kingrey still has some hard
days remembering what she went through and even though they lost
everything, they have been humbled and have learned so much from their
experience. I am an awful story teller but their story was in the
Church news and their family was pictured on the front. I learned so
much from them about how things don't matter. Family and the Gospel do.

On
Friday (sorry, I am like all over the place...) after District Meeting,
we spent the entire day helping a family from Albuquerque, New Mexico
move into their new home in the Monument Ward. We also met a guy from
Hong Kong in a neighborhood where we were trying to visit some
potentials. He wasn't interested in learning about the gospel but he was
really nice and said he could read my name tag...haha.

Lastly,
New Years was really fun. We had dinner at the Lovejoy's and we made
sugar cookies with them. Bro. Lovejoy had to work till 8ish so we were
able to spend the night with Sis. Lovejoy. She loves missionaries and
loves sharing her missionary experiences she has. The ward members here
and so kind and loving! I love them all so very much. I feel like I am
getting connected with the ward. I am recognizing faces and being able
to relate with many. It's funny because whenever is see Bro. Jenson (the
one that called you), he always asks me about my visa and says that he
will call dad and tell you a script to tell the Travel Office..haha. In
all, I love Colorado. The people here a so nice. I am looking forward to
the next week and hope that we can make some progress with the
investigators that we do have. We weren't able to meet with any this
week but we have some appointments this week!

I love how much I am learning and the experiences that I am having on my mission! It is crazy how much I have already learned!!

Love you all!! I loved reading the family email! It sounds like you are all doing great! Have a great week!!

Love,

Sister Haacke

Sugar Cookies with Sis. Lovejoy.

At Brook's baptism. She is the one somewhat in the middle with the Maroon dress.